Abstract
IT is a mere chance that I did not see the numbers of NATURE from Sept. 30 till to-day, and I therefore missed the note (vol. xii. p. 482) about the female chimpanzee of the Zoological Garden of Dresden, said to be a young gorilla. In my opinion there can be no question that this ape is not a gorilla. It is only a very fine specimen of a chimpanzee with a darker face than usual, it is true, but this is by no means sufficient in the present state of our knowledge to separate it specifically from Troglodytes niger. I only mention here the one characteristic referred to in NATURE—“the slight webbing between the fingers.” There is no webbing at all between the fingers which deserves to be called so, and there is a fundamental difference from the hand of a gorilla, not only in respect to this characteristic, but also in respect to the proportion of the fingers to each other. The hand of the Dresden specimen is very long and slender; the hand of the gorilla, even of the young one, is known to be broad and short fingered. But there is a long series of reasons which clearly speak against the supposition that this specimen is a gorilla, and I really do not perceive how anyone can advance this opinion after a very insufficient inspection. It is not enough to say, “I take the specimen for a gorilla; “scientific reasons are needed, and that, too, from some one who really understands the question ; it was at least very rash to come out with this gorilla. As soon as anyone of the supporters of the opinion that this chimpanzee is, a gorilla shall have published scientific reasons, I will take occasion to report about it, and to discuss these reasons. Till then there is no reason whatever to go deeper into the matter, and to regard this ape as anything other than a Troglodytes niger.
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MEYER, A. The Dresden “Gorilla”. Nature 13, 106 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/013106b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/013106b0
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